The tireless billionaire enthusiast Elon Musk spent the final days of 2019 at the SpaceX South Texas Launch Site in Boca Chica, where preparations for the test flight of the full-size prototype of the SpaceX Starship interplanetary spacecraft are underway.
A test flight of the prototype is scheduled for the first two months of 2020. During the test, the ship must fly to the height of 20 km and then land back onto the launch site. Elon Musk posted on Twitter the process of preparing one of the most critical components of the aircraft – the spherical bottom of the fuel tank.
It can be seen from the presented photo report that the bottom is almost ready. Therefore, the most exciting and expected event of early 2020 is drawing to its logical completion – the last test before a real flight.
Musk also published a video animation of the first Crew Dragon manned flight a part of the Demo-2 program. SpaceX has previously performed ten successive trials in a row for the Crew Dragon landing module parachutes. All mandatory tests are completed, and the ship is fully ready to be launched.
The SpaceX company initiated optional tests of the emergency escape system (EES), which consists in separating the capsule in flight in case of an emergency. Testing is scheduled for January. Simulation of a missile accident prior to the start, involving the detachment of a rescue capsule, was carried out by the company back in 2015. Now, the company is conducting additional testing, which, however, will not affect the certification of the ship for manned flights.
